How to start a new nostale server?

Hello,


I have played Nostale for a really long time (like most of us XD ). I really like the game and I have spent plenty of hours in it. I am currently thinking on creating a server of my own. Mainly to see how it works and try to mess with it. However, I have no idea where to start...

What would be the best way to start doing this?
I have been doing some research and people seem to use opennos, is this still viable or not really working anymore?
Is there any sort of guide on how to get started at all?

I'm just a little bit lost with the lack of information and the few people who seem to know about it seem to be more interested in telling you how smart they are and how dumb you are for not knowing anything rather than giving an answer really.

So yeah, any help, suggestion or anything is welcomed.

Hey,

I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been around NosTale for a long time too, and getting into server stuff for the first time can be really confusing. Most people who actually know something either stay quiet or act like they’re above everyone else. But honestly, I kind of get why. Most of them had to figure everything out completely on their own. No one held their hand. So a lot of people just don’t want to spend their time repeating the same explanations over and over again.

OpenNos is still around, but it’s really outdated. If you just want to mess around and get a basic idea of how things work, it’s fine. But if you’re even a little bit serious, skip it and go straight to WingsEmu. It’s cleaner, structured properly, and still keeps some parts from OpenNos without being a complete mess. Or you can go the way most people do: work on OpenNos for maybe a month, get frustrated when everything starts breaking apart, and realize the source isn’t stable at all.

Running a server isn’t just starting it up and inviting a few friends. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes. You need to secure your website, protect logins, close ports, fix bugs, patch dupes, and handle all the things no one warns you about. You’ll need a launcher and client changes too, or your stuff will just get leaked and abused. Whenever the official game updates, you’ll have to update your packets. And when something breaks, it’s on you to fix it.

Then there’s the website side. Accounts, registration, a shop, maybe even payments if you go that far. That alone can feel like a second project next to the server.

And to be real with you, if you don’t understand programming at all, you’ll either have to learn or hire someone to do the heavy lifting. And that’s not cheap. Development costs can pile up fast, especially if you’re not flexible and depend on someone else for every little change.

If you’re just learning, start small with a local setup. Understand how the master, channel, database, and game channel work together. Mess around with configs, handlers, and commands. Break things, fix them, figure it out. That’s how most people who actually know this stuff learned too.

If you want to make something serious, be ready to invest real time. And not just time, also money. You can’t learn and do everything at once. At some point, you’ll have to either spend money to speed things up or accept that it’ll take a long time to get there on your own.